Printer-friendly versionThis piece is to accompany No School Like Freedom School
The CDF Freedom Schools Program is only one of many based on the original Mississippi Freedom Schools.
In the summer of 2005, Kathy Emery helped launch the San Francisco Freedom School, a six-week Saturday adult course featuring civil rights history, presentations by civil rights movement veterans, discussions, film screenings, readings and activities.
Another program, the Chicago Freedom School, helps high school students create change in their communities. This year, 16 students will design projects to build healthy communities as well as fair and just schools.
In Detroit, after students walked out to protest failing schools, they called for a Freedom School. And in Arizona, a ban on ethnic-studies programs in public schools led students and teachers to organize the Paulo Freire Freedom School—a charter that focuses on social justice and environmental sustainability for middle school students in Tucson.
The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools are a powerful model that warrants duplication nearly 50 years later, says Emery. “Schools are so essential to movement building,” she says. “The goal is to empower people.”
